Just finished playing the game, and when it was revealed that it was in fact NOT SS3, i was actually quite surprised. The whole time through, i was getting a pretty heavy SS2 vibe, and could not quite explain why. (The whispers of "Make us whole again" in the earlier chapters a vibe of the Many, anyone?)
A little bit of Wiki'ing revealed that SS3 was in development at Redwood Shores, by the Godfather team, as of 2006. Fast forward to 2007, and the Godfather team at Redwood Shores announces Dead Space.
You can take a look see here and here for your own curiosity:
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/07/ea-does-give-a-sh-t-about-system-shock-3-says-pc-gamer-uk/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_shock_3#System_Shock_3
I can only suppose that they changed the IP due to the development and release of Bioshock, to prevent any correlations by people who don't remember the original SS1 & 2 and called it "Bioshock in outer space" or something ridiculous.
Dead Space is a freaking amazing game, and i love every minute of it. Knowing that at one point in its development it was the child of one of my favorite series's only makes the game that little bit more savory.
[Edited by - rian carnarvon on October 27, 2008 9:40:44 PM]

That's a pretty tasty rumour and I had bitten into it myself, but I'm not so sure it's accurate. Dead Space is much better on its own as a franchise than it would be as a "System Shock" game, although the Shocklike roots run extremely deep.

Hm, i never knew it was a widespread rumor. I was just putting two and two together, as the odds of having the same team work on two IP's that are quite similar in terms of the "space-survival-horror" element at the same time seemed unlikely at best.

Presuming that they canceled the SS3 project in favor of Dead Space, it seems likely that a good portion of the groundwork that was done for it would have been adopted rather than just getting thrown in the trash, thus explaining the "Extremely deep shocklike roots" as you succinctly put it.

Its like the fetus that survived to be born, but has some teeth and bone matter sticking out of its neck: reminding those who look closely that it ate something to live.

Completely agree that the game is awesome on its own, however. It is really nice to see EA do something original for a change, Dead Space is good enough that i can forgive them for the cluster* that was spore.

Since the comparisons with System Shock, I've been very interested in this game. I was planning on getting the pc version, but then people started complaining about the controls. So now it's no longer easy to choose between pc and xbox :) If you played it on pc, would you care to comment on the controls?

Most games rely on frameworks and engines developed from previous projects. Most teams rely on people who came from similar projects. That's normal, and good for the industry. Starting from scratch with novice programmers for every project would be a foolish thing to do.

They canceled one game, and used the same engine for a similar game. It is quite common to simply gut another game and build a new game from the remains. People who worked on the canceled game were moved over to the new game because they have relevant experience both in the genera and on the engine. I see no issues with that.

Original post by KwizatzI recently heard it was "Resident Evil 4 in space".

Any true to that?

There are enough differences to where that isn't an entirely accurate sum of the game. Resident Evil 4 didn't have a very cohesively menacing environment whereas in Dead Space the environment is always out to get you and is very creepy. They completely nailed the abandoned ship full of creepy death feeling in this one. So in essence, Dead Space is much more immersive than RE4 was.

There are similarities such as the third person view, shooting in first person, stores/upgrade locations scattered throughout the game. But Dead Space has a much greater focus on keeping you there with it. This also means, in this case, that the game is much more linear than RE4 was. If you don't like linear games, Dead Space isn't the game for you.

All in all Dead Space is amazing and I think anyone that likes (sci-fi) survival horror should give it a whirl. Just remember to play it alone at night with the lights out and your 5.1 surround sound up all the way.

Original post by KoenSince the comparisons with System Shock, I've been very interested in this game. I was planning on getting the pc version, but then people started complaining about the controls. So now it's no longer easy to choose between pc and xbox :) If you played it on pc, would you care to comment on the controls?

I've only played it on the 360, sadly. Friend bought it and his 360 is at my house, so it was a better idea than buying it again. I have been hearing that all round its better to just plug a gamepad into your PC though, the controls were ported that badly.

Original post by binchawpzAll in all Dead Space is amazing and I think anyone that likes (sci-fi) survival horror should give it a whirl. Just remember to play it alone at night with the lights out and your 5.1 surround sound up all the way.

I was once doing this with another game, and then, completely unexpectedly, my cat jumped up onto my lap.

Original post by KoenSince the comparisons with System Shock, I've been very interested in this game. I was planning on getting the pc version, but then people started complaining about the controls. So now it's no longer easy to choose between pc and xbox :) If you played it on pc, would you care to comment on the controls?

I've only played it on the 360, sadly. Friend bought it and his 360 is at my house, so it was a better idea than buying it again. I have been hearing that all round its better to just plug a gamepad into your PC though, the controls were ported that badly.

I was planning on buying this. But having use a controller is a killer for me. I hate gamepads. Guess I'll just play Fallout 3 some more...

Original post by binchawpzAll in all Dead Space is amazing and I think anyone that likes (sci-fi) survival horror should give it a whirl. Just remember to play it alone at night with the lights out and your 5.1 surround sound up all the way.

I was once doing this with another game, and then, completely unexpectedly, my cat jumped up onto my lap.

I do not recommend the experience.

[lol]

Quote:

Original post by capn_midnightYeah, the PC mouse+keyboard controls suck donkey balls. I'll have to try the gamepad idea.

What made it so bad? Can you not configure the controls, or are they laggy or something?

Original post by rian carnarvonI have been hearing that all round its better to just plug a gamepad into your PC though, the controls were ported that badly.

Quote:

Original post by capn_midnightYeah, the PC mouse+keyboard controls suck donkey balls. I'll have to try the gamepad idea.

Damnit! I was hoping someone would say "No worries, pc controls are fine!" :) I guess I'll have to try the 360 version then.

No worries, PC controls are fine. You just need to jack up the sensitivity. Certainly more well thought-out than RE4 for PC. *shudder* I have a decent set of keybindings made and would be willing to post them should anyone be interested.

Gawd I loved the alt fire on the machinegun. It was so useless but it looked so awesome. That and the shotgun was a beast once you fully upgraded it. The effects needed moar refraction, though.

Some of those are defaults, and a few aren't mentioned-- I just left them as-is. Overall it works pretty well, I just beat the game for the second time and haven't had any instances of 'I wanted to do this, dammit! Not that!' Hopefully you can decode my silliness :P

And perhaps space girlfriend was more a half-truth rather than an *outright* lie.

The problem with the controls is that they are extremely sluggish. Even with sensitivity turned to max, it took me several mousepad-lengths of moving just to turn around. In aiming mode, it's extreme; the sensitivity is so low that in the parts where you have to carry items with the kinesis module and turn around corners, it's faster to drop the object, drop out of aiming mode, walk around to a different angle, turn, enter aiming mode and pick up the object again rather than just turn around.

That said, it's an excellent game. It's so similar to SS2 I'm tempted to call it a ripoff; the story is extremely similar except there is no SHODAN; the shop and upgrade system is almost identical; the enemies are similar to the annelids; the story is given the same way (logs and the occasional radio transmission); the whole ghost deal is very similar... it's basically the same game without SHODAN and with interesting zero-g puzzles. So how could it be anything but excellent?

This game took for-ev-er to get running on my PC. (finally figured out I had to unplug my saitek joystick to make it run, no thanks at all to EA support)And OH did i make a fuss about that, game shoulda dumped a log, or had an error box or something to point me in some direction.

The game was almost perfect. The gameplay was great. All the weapons were cool, and the 'strategic dismemberment' was an awesome mechanic. The controls were great. The scares were great. Had a much better feel than, say Doom3 and all the repeated action that you could predict at every corner.My only real gripe with the game is the stupid tutorial stuff that happens even in replay mode, and the slow beginning.I didn't have any of those mouse sensitivity issues, but I also use a logitec trackman trackball with high sensitivity settings.

Oh man, and I had a lot of fun just dying a lot. They put so much effort into all the unique ways that your character can die in the game, it was fun to see them all at least once. (new meaning to the word facehugger anyone?)

Original post by HnefiThat said, it's an excellent game. It's so similar to SS2 I'm tempted to call it a ripoff; the story is extremely similar except there is no SHODAN; the shop and upgrade system is almost identical; the enemies are similar to the annelids; the story is given the same way (logs and the occasional radio transmission); the whole ghost deal is very similar... it's basically the same game without SHODAN and with interesting zero-g puzzles. So how could it be anything but excellent?

Yup, thats what i was getting at before. All the evidence points to it at one time being the SS3 project, and its by the same team that was doing SS3 as well. Makes sense that it would have more than a passing resemblance to the series it was once tied into.

[Spoiler]Thought that space girlfriend would actually be SHODAN right up until the very end, actually, was praying that EA was being sneaky and having a massive plot twist that would leave us all shocked and amazed.

Original post by KulSeranThis game took for-ev-er to get running on my PC. (finally figured out I had to unplug my saitek joystick to make it run, no thanks at all to EA support)And OH did i make a fuss about that, game shoulda dumped a log, or had an error box or something to point me in some direction.

The game was almost perfect. The gameplay was great. All the weapons were cool, and the 'strategic dismemberment' was an awesome mechanic. The controls were great. The scares were great. Had a much better feel than, say Doom3 and all the repeated action that you could predict at every corner.My only real gripe with the game is the stupid tutorial stuff that happens even in replay mode, and the slow beginning.I didn't have any of those mouse sensitivity issues, but I also use a logitec trackman trackball with high sensitivity settings.

Oh man, and I had a lot of fun just dying a lot. They put so much effort into all the unique ways that your character can die in the game, it was fun to see them all at least once. (new meaning to the word facehugger anyone?)